


Badgermole Kid

by Khashana



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Badgermoles, Canon Compliant, Friendship, Gen, Post-Series, Toph's nickname habit, Zuko's breaking-into-places habit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:15:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27868230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khashana/pseuds/Khashana
Summary: Adrift in a post-war world, Toph and Zuko meet up with old friends, break into a palace, and maybe remember who they are along the way.
Relationships: Toph Beifong & Zuko
Comments: 13
Kudos: 38





	Badgermole Kid

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aquamaris](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aquamaris/gifts).



> Written for the ATLA Secret Santa 2020 for Aquamaris, a frequent commenter of mine by coincidence. I hope it lives up to the rest of my work for you!  
> Thanks to appa-yee-yee and livelaughzukka for beta!

_One more day,_ Toph tells herself for the dozenth time. _One more day, and then I’m leaving._

It’s been sixteen days since she came back to visit her parents and she doesn’t know what she expected.

“You’ll be safe here, darling,” her mother said.

_Safe._

She’d almost turned around and left the same day, but a voice in her head that sounds like Aang said _you can’t expect them to change all their habits in one day. If you’re going to give them a chance, you have to give them more time._

Has Aang ever put up with anyone assuming he can’t take care of himself? Despite being the Avatar’s earthbending teacher and instrumental in saving the world from the Fire Nation, and a _metalbender_?

No, of course he hasn’t.

And besides, it’s not like she has anything better to do right now. Aang’s mastered earthbending and has his entire culture to rebuild, Sokka and Katara’s tribe needs them, and Zuko is busy being the Fire Lord. She’d hung out at the palace with him for a while, helping sniff out the Ozai loyalists from his palace staff and generally giving the Fire Sages a collective heart attack with her complete and deliberate disregard for high society manners. But then the letter from her parents came (a real one this time), and she had no good excuses why she couldn’t go home.

“Toph!” her mother calls. “We have a very important visitor! Come in and pay your respects.”

Who could that be? Some Earth Kingdom noble they’re going to marry her off to? Toph shan’t pay _anyone_ respects. She is _done_ with respects.

She reaches out through the ground to get a feel for who the visitor might be, and she’s grinning as she enters the front room.

“What’s up, Sparky?”

Zuko bows slightly.

“Toph,” says her father, “may I present—”

“Fire Lord Zuko,” she says.

“Actually, I think Toph might be better equipped to present _you_ to _me,_ ” says Zuko. He sounds like he’s barely suppressing a shit-eating grin.

…All right, there may be _some_ occasions for manners. Those occasions being “gate-crashing the Earth King’s party” and “whenever she can use them to show someone up.” Bonus points that the someone is her father. “Father, Mother, may I present Fire Lord Zuko, son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai, keeper of the Dragon Throne, the Phoenix Prince and the hope of nations?”

She might’ve tacked on a few titles there.

Zuko shakes with silent laughter as he bows again.

“Zuko, Lao and Poppy Beifong.”

“How may we be of service, Your Majesty?” says her father, bowing.

“I require Toph’s services in the Fire Court.”

It’s a power move, and she almost busts out laughing. Her parents can’t ask what Zuko needs her for, not without being ruder than she’s sure they can bring themselves to be. They stand there for a few seconds, wrongfooted.

Her father recovers first. “I mean no disrespect, but surely there are…others? My daughter is a tiny, blind, helpless—”

“—Master earthbender,” Zuko says firmly. “And she’s irreplaceable. I insist.”

Her parents equivocate some more, but in the end, they can’t outright refuse, and Zuko doesn’t back down.

Finally, Toph says, “I’m going,” and that shuts them up. “You can’t stop me. I could bend doors in the walls when I was _six._ Sparky, give me twenty minutes to pack.”

“Toph, you can’t be serious,” tries her mother, but Toph ignores her and goes to her room to throw her bag together. She didn’t bring much with her, just a couple changes of clothes and a few odds and ends. She’s wearing one of her old noble dresses, but she doesn’t bother to change. It might come in handy at some point. And she kind of likes the thought of walking out like that while her parents are tongue-tied by Zuko’s existence and can’t even put up a fight.

With half an ear, she hears her father say, “Sparky?” faintly.

“Nickname,” Zuko sighs, long-suffering. “We all have at least one.”

Zuko has a carriage outside, and they climb into it. It’s metal, which is a lovely surprise. She’s never been able to _see_ in a carriage before.

“Are you wearing all your Fire Lord getup?” asks Toph as Zuko begins to shed his outer layers.

“Yes,” he says, grinning audibly. “Felt like making an impression.”

“So what do you need me for?”

“Oh, uh. Nothing. You said to rescue you if you were gone for more than two weeks.”

…She _had_ said that, actually. To be precise, she’d said, “If I’m not back in a couple weeks, assume I’m comatose from boredom and send help.”

“You know I was joking, right?” Sometimes Zuko doesn’t, but she’d thought there was enough hyperbole in that sentence to get the point across.

He shrugs, unrepentant.

“I know you don’t really need anyone to rescue you, but I thought you might appreciate an excuse to leave. If you’d wanted to stay, you would have said so. Also, I missed you.”

She punches him in the arm, and he makes an irritated noise. “Aw, Sparky, is it too quiet in your big fancy palace?”

“It’s not _quiet._ It’s _boring_.”

She laughs. “So what have I missed in the last two weeks?”

He’s catching her up on important Fire Nation politics, like the merchant he found doing Fire/Earth blend cuisine while in disguise at the local marketplace, and the drama going on between two of the maids in the palace, when the carriage wheels start making an entirely different noise. Like they’re not on the same surface anymore.

She puts it together. “Hey, is this the bridge?”

“Yes.”

“You got anywhere to be, or you want to stop and meet some old friends of mine?”

They leave the carriage and its driver and ostrich horses at a hotel. All of them seem relieved to get a rest; it isn’t exactly a short trip to Gaoling from the palace. Toph changes into one of her everyday dresses, and Zuko turns out to be wearing “basic blacks” (whatever that means) under his Fire Lord robes, anyway. He does put the Fire Lord hairpiece away.

Toph solidifies her stance and extends her perception through the ground as far as she can. She finds what she’s looking for and grins.

“Hold on, Sparky.”

“To what—oof!” He stumbles as she earthbends them straight down into the dirt, then makes a tunnel in front of them.

“Is it safe to firebend?”

“As far as I know. Why?”

“I can’t see with my feet. And right now I can’t see with my eyes, either.” Oh, right. No light down here.

“Go for it. I’ll tell you if it scares them.” She keeps bending the tunnel forward until she hits an existing tunnel.

“Oh, _wow,_ ” says Zuko, heartrate picking up.

“Zuko, may I present Huān and Zhì,” says Toph over the sound of earthbending. The two badgermoles widen her tunnel to make room for themselves and snuffle her hair excitedly, and Zuko’s curiously. She reaches out and strokes Zhì’s nose, a pang of nostalgia overtaking her. It’s been too long. She’s missed them, and clearly they’ve missed her too.

“How are you friends with badgermoles?” asks Zuko, petting Huān’s shoulder. She leans into the touch, throwing him off balance. Toph snorts. He’d make a terrible earthbender. Zuko strengthens his stance and pets more vigorously. Huān rumbles happily.

“They taught me to earthbend,” Toph answers.

“Seriously?”

“How do you not know this?”

“How _would_ I? I didn’t even know about your seismic sense until Ember Island when Aang mentioned it.”

Right. Zuko wasn’t there when she told her story to the rest of Team Avatar.

“So you met a little blind girl who doesn’t have a problem seeing and you just…went with it?”

He shrugs. “Pretty much. You meet the greatest earthbender in the world, you learn pretty quick not to assume there’s anything she can’t do.”

“And you never asked _how_ I’m the greatest earthbender in the world.”

“Because you were taught by badgermoles, apparently.”

“And because literally no bender practices as much as I do. I’m _constantly_ earthbending.”

“Makes sense.”

Zhì nudges her for more pets. Toph scritches his nose. Huān flops onto her side and grunts at Zuko.

“So are badgermoles more like cats or like duckdogs?”

“Huh?”

“Does she want me to pet her belly or no?”

“Oh. Yeah, you can rub her belly.” Zuko drops to his knees to comply. Toph takes advantage of his back being turned to wrap her arms around Zhì’s neck and bury her face in his fur.

“Was it these same two who taught you?”

“There are more down here. These ones just happened to be in the area.”

“And you know them all apart?”

“I didn’t when I was six, but it’s not that different from telling people apart. They’re all slightly different.”

Zhì makes an attempt to sit on her feet. Toph plops down and leans into his side. Huān, meanwhile, is actually falling asleep. Zuko starts to hum what sounds like a lullaby, and both badgermoles wriggle closer. Traitors. Toph follows her backrest.

“So if you didn’t know about the badgermoles, did you know I used to compete in Earth Rumbles?”

“No way.” A beat, and then, “Actually, now that I think about it, that makes so much sense.” Toph laughs.

“I had to know for sure I was the best earthbender in the world.”

“I’d pay to watch you beat a bunch of professional earthbenders into the dust.”

“Eh. One time I had to fight them all at once, and after that fighting them one at a time kind of lost its appeal.”

When they get back to the surface, Zuko is quiet and pensive. He doesn’t say anything until they’re almost to the hotel, and then he says, “You know, you don’t have to come back with me.”

“You said it yourself, if I wanted to stay with my parents I would have said so.”

“It’s not like those are your only options. Toph, you’re the greatest earthbender in the world. You say that, but have you ever thought about what it means?”

“Huh?” By mutual, silent agreement, they stop outside the hotel.

“Look, I’m not that imaginative a person, but the possibilities have got to be endless. You can already do things no other earthbender can do. You can _bend metal._ Your destiny has to be greater than being a lie detector for the Fire Nation _or_ sitting in your parents’ house doing nothing.”

“Yeah. Yeah, it does. But somebody has to be the imaginative one here, because I don’t know what that sounds like either.”

“Hmm.” Zuko stroked his chin. “I’ll try, I guess.”

He wakes her up shortly after dawn by shaking her shoulder.

“Toph! Hey, Toph!”

“What?” she growls. “Are we being attacked?” (She knows they aren’t. Everyone besides Zuko and somebody in the kitchen are asleep.)

“No, I just thought of something.”

“And you had to wake me up about it?”

“Yes. You know who knows a lot about earthbending and also has _lots_ of imagination?”

“Who?”

“King Bumi. You wanna go to Omashu?”

That’s…not half bad an idea, actually. They’ve both heard Aang and Sokka and Katara’s stories about King Bumi’s shenanigans when they went to Omashu for the first time. That’s a man who thinks outside the box.

“Yeah, okay.”

It doesn’t occur to her until they’re back in the carriage, diverted to Omashu, that Zuko is probably expected back at the palace today, and might well incite a panic if he decides to hang out in Omashu for however long.

Whatever. It’s his schedule; if he wants to upend it to go chasing Toph’s destiny with her, she isn’t going to question him.

It is kind of unlike him, though.

Omashu has open borders since the end of the war, so they walk straight through what used to be a set of three gates and up to the palace doors before they’re stopped.

“Your business?” says the guard flatly.

“Please tell King Bumi that the Fire Lord and Toph Beifong are here to see him,” says Zuko.

“Yeah, and I’m the chief of the Northern Water Tribe,” says the guard.

Zuko is literally wearing all of his Fire Lord regalia again, specifically to prevent this happening.

“We _are,_ ” insists Zuko. “Toph, bend some metal.”

Toph bends the guard’s backpiece, forcing him into a bow, and walks past him into the palace.

“Intruders!” yells the guard. “Help! Intruders!” Zuko grabs Toph’s wrist, and together they run for it, bolting up a flight of stairs and through a small maze of corridors as guards pour out.

When Toph can tell that they’ve lost the guards, she tugs Zuko to a stop.

“I _meant_ as a demonstration to prove who you are,” says Zuko.

“I know,” says Toph.

They were already kind of giggling, but that sends them both into absolute hysterics.

“We just broke into King Bumi’s palace,” gasps Toph.

“Slightly harder than breaking into a maximum-security prison was, not as bad as the heavily-guarded military stronghold housing the Avatar,” remarks Zuko, and they’re off again laughing fit to burst. Zuko has to lean against the wall. Toph just plants both hands on her knees and wheezes.

When Zuko gets his breath back again, he says, “So now what? Find some spare uniforms and blend in as part of the guard looking for us? Sokka and I made that one work pretty well.”

“I was thinking more along the lines of striding up to someone who didn’t actually get a look at us and complaining about how long we’ve been kept waiting for our audience with his Majesty,” says Toph, “but I think I like your version better.”

It’s a moot point. All at once, the walls shoot forward to box them into a cube, which tilts onto its side. Toph goes tumbling as the room begins to shake violently. Presumably Zuko does too, but she’s being bounced so much she can’t get her feet under her, so she’s getting the picture of the room in random bursts.

“Do something!” yells Zuko.

“They broke my root!” screams Toph, still struggling to get to her feet.

“Get your root through your hands then!”

Huh. Like a firebender?

Well, why not. She slaps her palms to the ground, draws a knee in, and connects her chi to the wall that used to be a corridor. She kicks out, and the wall goes flying.

The shaking stops.

The room gently lowers itself a few handspans, and Toph and Zuko scramble to their feet. A figure walks in, applauding, and Toph recognizes King Bumi himself. Zuko bows politely in the Earth style. Bumi returns it in the Fire style, and then bows to Toph as well.

“I once told the Avatar that I was the most powerful earthbender he would ever see,” he says. “I’ve never been more pleased to be proven wrong.”

“Well, I’ve never _seen_ a more powerful earthbender, either,” says Toph, and Bumi laughs, snorting.

“Why did the earthbender take his girlfriend to the quarry?”

“Huh?”

“Because he wanted to get a little _boulder_!”

Toph grins. “Why did the Earth King run away to the circus?”

“Why?” Bumi sounds delighted.

“He was tired of the bu- _rock_ -racy.” Bumi laughs again, that funny snorting sound, and claps.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you again, Master Beifong. I think we’ll get along just fine.”

“Just a _cobble_ of punny old earthbenders.”

“She doesn’t have to pass three perilous tests?” asks Zuko, sounding amused now that the danger is gone.

“Pish! What tests could I possibly set her? Any trap I could build, she can unbuild again. My only chance was to catch her off guard and keep her root broken, and she’s already found a way around that. My dear, is it true you can bend metal?”

Pride shoots through Toph, and she stands a little straighter. “You bet it is!”

“Would you do us the honor of remaining here for some time and teaching metalbending to me and my earthbenders?”

Toph’s mouth drops open.

“Think about it,” says Bumi before she can answer. “Discuss it with your friend the Fire Lord.” He bends a hole and drops through the floor.

“What are you thinking?” asks Zuko after a few seconds of silence. Toph imagines it, and something warm and sure creeps under her shoulder blades.

“Yeah,” she says slowly. “I think this is it, Zuko. What I’m supposed to be doing. For right now, anyway.”

Her mind is racing through the possibilities. She wants to keep pushing the boundaries, seeing what earthbending can do. She isn’t going to manage that sitting at home, but teaching metalbending to a “mad genius,” as Aang called him? She can’t even imagine what they might find. “Maybe I can open a metalbending school. And I’m certainly not going to get bored with Bumi around.”

He laughs. “Can’t argue that.”

“Are _you_ gonna be okay?” He’d come to get her for a reason. If he was so lonely he’d taken off for Gaoling the second her two weeks were up, she’s not sure she can leave him without feeling guilty.

“Yeah, I think so.” _Truth._ “It was good to remind myself that life isn’t just meetings and speeches, even though I’m the Fire Lord now. King Bumi certainly isn’t letting _his_ life be boring. You better come to visit, though.”

“You too.” She punches him on the arm. He yelps.

“I’m glaring at you,” he adds after a second.

“I’m so scared.”

“Bite me, Badgermole Kid.”

“ _Hey.”_

(It’s a terrible nickname. No finesse. Toph kind of loves it.)

**Author's Note:**

> Inspiration:
> 
> Zuko coming to rescue Toph from her parents’ is from [Crossing the Same River Twice](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20721593) by quodthey 
> 
> Borrowed a bit of dialogue from this one scene in [Embers](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3591783/chapters/7921653) by Vathara:  
> "Playing?" Bato turned a furious look on him. "Your prince is taunting a helpless little blind-"  
> "Master earthbender," Sadao said firmly.
> 
> The adding of Phoenix Prince to Zuko’s title (and possibly also the use of Dragon Throne, I don't remember if this is the only place I've seen it) is a nod to [where the stars do not take sides](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25629370/chapters/62213413) by WitchofEndor


End file.
